1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to optical articles for use in optical materials and products, including lenses such as an eyeglass lens, and to methods for producing such optical articles.
2. Related Art
A known variation of optical articles such as an eyeglass lens is one that includes various functional layers (films) formed on an optical base material. Known examples of such layers include a hardcoat layer that ensures durability for the optical base material, and an antireflection coating that prevents ghosts and flickers.
JP-A-2004-341052 discloses a technique intended to provide an antistatic optical element preferable for low-heat-resistant base material. Specifically, an optical element such as an eyeglass lens is described that includes an antireflection coating of a multilayer configuration formed on a plastic optical base material, and in which the antireflection coating includes a transparent conductive layer formed by ion-assisted vacuum vapor deposition, and other layers formed by methods such as electron beam vacuum vapor deposition. The conductive layer is described as being a material such as indium, tin, and zinc, or an inorganic oxide of two or more of such components, particularly preferably indium tin oxide (ITO).
It is known to form a conductive layer of a certain thickness on the layer formed on the optical base material, in order to impart conductivity for antistatic and electromagnetic shielding purposes. An ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) layer is a common example of such a conductive layer. A problem of ITO, however, is that it is relatively expensive, and raises the manufacturing cost.
Further, the addition of a conductive layer of a certain thickness for the film or layer (for example, a multilayer antireflection coating) produced according to the predetermined optical or film design necessitates a new optical design or film design.